Have you ever been in a situation where your team is getting absolutely shredded by a full AD team comp but no one builds armor? Ever had a 15/0 LeBlanc chase you through your own turret and wonder why you're getting decimated in less than 0.75 seconds? What about when you're chasing down a tank and you do 0 damage to them and they're spamming emotes while you hit them for the added BM? This all probably has something to do with your build and the fact that it's incomplete or maybe just flat out wrong. The most common question I get from relatively new players that I play with is, "What should I build next?". And while this seems like a pretty simple question, answering it can be a lot more complicated.

A lot of low elo players have the bad habit of building only recommended items. But the problem with this is that these items are just that, recommended. The recommended build paths are decent for giving your played champion the stats that champ wants, but not every game is so direct. Being able to build off item paths are crucial to winning games. Let's examine reasons to deviate from the recommended builds and how to build properly for the specified occasion. Note that this is going to be a crash course. Building is an incredibly nuanced part of the game and will always be much more complicated than what can be explained in this short guide.

Ahead or Behind

Whether you're ahead or behind is, in my opinion, the largest influencing factor of how you should build. Simply put, if you're ahead you should build offensively. If you're behind, build defensively. If you're ahead, your goal should be to take your lead, push your advantage into other lanes, then into mid-game, and ultimately close out the game before the enemy can catch up. When I say build offensively, it doesn't necessarily mean damage. In the case of tanks, where your goal isn't to necessarily do raw damage, you can still optimize your build to kill the enemy team. Take for instance, Sunfire Cape versus Randuin's Omen

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Sunfire Cape and Randuin's Omen both give relatively the same stats at 500 health and 50 armor for Sunfire Cape and 60 armor for Randuin's Omen. While both items are amazing for tanks, one is better offensively and one is better defensively. Sunfire Cape rewards standing in the middle of team fights and gives you free AoE damage, while Randuin's Omen will give you extra damage mitigation. Building the Sunfire while ahead will allow you to be tanky but also give you the damage stats you need to leverage your lead and help you deal more damage.

In the case of bruisers, building can be a bit more complex. Bruisers constantly straddle the line of dealing massive damage and being an unmovable object. But again, thinking first about whether you're ahead or behind can make your build path much clearer. If you're behind, please save yourself and your team some trouble and build tanky. After getting an offensive item so that your damage isn't completely irrelevant, it's a good idea to build so that you don't die. The biggest reasons to do this are because if you continue to die, you're going to cripple your team and enable the enemy team. And, if you're behind enough, your damage may never be relevant enough to matter. You might as well just build tanky to soak up some of the damage that would otherwise go to your ADC or casters.

If you're ahead however, this is a golden opportunity to let your inner boosted animal out. If, by chance, you find yourself with the majority of the kills and gold on your team and it looks like you can hard carry the game, go for it. Get all the offensive items your heart desires. Champions like Riven, Olaf, Lee Sin, and Xin Zhao all have the capability to run rampant through whole teams when they build fully offensively. Seriously, have you ever seen a 10/0 full life steal Olaf 1v5? It's terrifying. But going full damage comes with risks. Building this way makes you much more squishy than normal. If you get caught out, you're getting deleted. Also, if you fail to close the game out early, the enemy team will catch up in damage and be able to match.

Seriously... terrifying

For champs like casters, assassins, and ADCs, since your primary focus is doing damage, it may seem counterintuitive to ever want to build defensively. In the words of IMT's Wildturtle, "Defensive items don't do damage." But there are many ways to itemize defensively without sacrificing damage. Item's like Death's Dance, Maw of Malmortius, Sterak's Gage, and Bloodthirster are all great examples of items to build when behind. All of these items give offensive stats while also offering survivability in the form of a shield, damage mitigation, or life steal so that you don't immediately get blown up. If you're ahead, it's pretty straightforward. Continue to build damage and snowball harder.

Building Around Your Wincon

An underlying theme in a lot of my guides is that you have to be able to identify what's going on in the game at every stage of the game, and adapt. Even as early as champion select. Usually early on, a good player will try to identify what a team's road to victory will be, and play to that. For example, if your team has hard engage, your path to winning will probably be team fights, forcing initiation, and running at the enemy team. Maybe your wincon will be out rotating the enemy team, taking turrets and objectives from a safe distance, and poking out the enemy team. Whatever your team's wincon is, you should play to it. And as you've probably guessed, you can absolutely build to optimize your team's win condition. In the case of hard engage team compositions, look to build things like Righteous Glory, Talisman of Ascension, Youmuu's Ghostblade, or Hextech Protobelt. The extra movement speed and chase potential is great for either starting a fight, or for securing kills after a skirmish breaks out.

For poke team comps, items like Luden's Echo and Rapid Firecannon are great items if your team comp is trying to harass from afar. Each item essentially increases the range or depth of your damage dealing spells or auto attacks. Both items also come with the added bonus of extra wave clear. This is crucial to rotating and pushing on towers faster than the enemy team.

Nidalee gets poked out... ironic

Building to Stop the Enemy Wincon

Just like you should play to your team's strength, you should try to shut down the enemy's game plan. If not obvious from the start, by late lane phase or mid game, you should be able to identify what's working well for the enemy team. Hopefully you've shut them down so hard that they have no chance of winning. But if not there are definite ways to build to stop whatever is working for them. First and foremost, if the other team doesn't draft a good mix of AD and AP, just stack resistances and watch them never do damage. 3 AP casters? Get Abyssal Scepter, Spirit Visage, or Banshee Veil. AD Bruiser, AD Assassin, and fed ADC? Pick up an Iceborn Gauntlet, Dead Man's Plate, or Thornmail. To most players the concept of building resistances is fairly obvious, but at low elo, only stacking armor and health is fairly common.

If your team can't break the enemy front line because your Riven tower dived their Maokai one too many times and failed, build items like Blade of the Ruined King, Lord Dominik's Regard, or Liandry's/Rylai's combo. The percent health damage and burn is amazing for shredding through a tank's HP bar. For tanks like Mundo, Vladimir, and Swain, rush Mortal Reminder and Morellonomicon. Both items apply Grievous Wounds and will prevent a large amount of their sustain, making them more manageable.

If their team is packing a lot of hard CC or they have suppression (I'm looking at you Warwick and Malzahar), for the love of Ahri please build a Quicksilver Sash. Using your Quicksilver Sash to remove certain debuffs or CC at the right moment can mean the difference between feeding or getting free kills. Seriously, the item has saved many a pro from being stunned without a chance to retaliate. Take for instance the infamous SKT T1 Faker Zed VS KT Ryu Zed moment. While you can no longer QSS Zed's Death Mark, but the point still stands. If you're a support, pick up a Mikael's Crucible. You want your ADC doing damage and kiting, not standing still and dying.

Just look at that beautiful QSS use

Building will never be as simple as picking up all the recommended items from the shop or even this guide. Just figuring out what type of Smite item to get on junglers or what type of boots to get can even be a lengthy discussion. But at the heart of the matter, finding the right builds are crucial to winning games. Remember that if you're playing from behind building defensive items will prevent you from falling further behind, and can give you the survivability to catch back up. Conversely, if you're ahead continuing to get big damage items can help you widen the gap and help you close out games faster. Build items that align with how your champion and team wants to win the game, and also build items that halt the enemy from playing the type of game they want to play. Do all of these things, and you'll never again have to ask the question, "What should I build next?".

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